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35 years ago – 1981 Destin Community Center members joined a handful of Destin residents in an unofficial poll for a “mayor elected by the people” form of government in Destin. A 20-year-old tractor-trailer driver was killed when he tried to avoid ramming a slow-moving car and overturned his rig beside U.S. Highway 98 in Walton County. 20 years ago – 1996 A third swimmer in five days drowned in the Gulf of Mexico off a South Walton County beach… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 Okaloosa County commissioners took the first step to eliminate an expected budget deficit for 1981-82 by implementing a countywide hiring freeze. Lenore Gordon of Fort Walton Beach was so excited about the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana that she threw a reception for the royal couple complete with a wedding cake. 20 years ago – 1996 A Fort Walton Beach woman said that the Sylvania Heights neighborhood was bad and getting worse after… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 Acting Police Chief Bob Neyendorf announced that the Fort Walton Beach Police Department would launch an effort aimed at halting “an infiltration of organized crime” in the city. 20 years ago – 1996 Florida’s 1996 slate of candidates for partisan state and circuit races contained 391 Republicans and Democrats — and 33 others. A one bedroom condominium on the gulf was renting for $695 per month, a waterfront three-bedroom home in Niceville was $875 per… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 The Peddlers Two nightspot, a Fort Walton Beach area landmark since 1963, burned to the ground. Hospital Corporation of America, owner of Crestview Community Hospital, imported ten Filipino nurses on work visas after it failed to fill nursing staff vacancies with people from this country. 20 years ago – 1996 A 14-year-old boy was the second person to drown in two days off South Walton County beaches. 10 years ago – 2006 U.S. Sen. Bill… Read More »

35 years ago -1981 Planning was under way for the development of the Mattie M. Kelly Fine Arts Center in Destin. A Shalimar man died in a fire when he apparently was unable to escape from the rear bedroom of his burning mobile home. Okaloosa County pioneer Henry H. Harris died on July 26. Harris operated the first department store in the county. 20 years ago – 1996 Walton County lived up to its No. 2 state ranking in marijuana… Read More »

60 years ago – 1956 The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department was suffering from financial strain and law enforcement was being carried out by an almost skeleton force, according to the newly appointed sheriff, Ray Wilson. 35 years ago -1981 Dale M. Titler obtained copyrights to a map in 1957 titled “Billy Bowleg’s Owne Charte,” supposedly showing the location of 14 shipwrecks or buried treasure. 20 years ago – 1996 Christopher M. Dascenzo was found guilty of federal firearms charges, including… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 Efforts to recall Fort Walton Beach’s mayor and two councilmen were halted when a circuit court judge granted a temporary injunction to keep officials from processing the recall petitions. Royal Palm Realty Services was advertising homes at Sherri Estates Town Homes on Lewis Turner Boulevard for $43,500. 20 years ago – 1996 Buttons and other traces of British colonial life were unearthed at two archaeological digs on Eglin Reservation. Because of the dwindling number of… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 Skewed by rising housing costs, inflation edged up to an 8.8-percent annual rate. An emergency measure passed by the Walton County Commission brought to an end the free reign that beach vehicle owners had along the county’s 28 miles of shoreline. The ordinance did not ban vehicles from the beach altogether but restricted the traffic to six designated areas that added up to less than four miles in length. 20 years ago – 1996 Crestview’s… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 A woman was shot four times in the chest at the Hurlburt Field picnic grounds by a calm assailant who she said smoked cigarettes and drank a beer between shots. An Air Force major was hospitalized in good condition after he was accidentally ejected from an F-4 Phantom jet as it rolled down a taxiway at Eglin Air Force Base. 20 years ago – 1996 Three teenagers connected to calling in bomb threats to Choctawhatchee… Read More »

35 years ago – 1981 Fort Walton Beach High School students Jeff Crumpler and Cliff Reynolds were presented with resolutions from the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners for their role in getting the Henderson Beach property ranked third on the state’s list of proposed land acquisitions. Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s royal wedding scheduled for July 29 set the tone for Gayfers and Brides Magazine bridal show. 20 years ago – 1996 Richard “Dick” Haddad, a lifelong Democrat, was the… Read More »

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